(Bloomberg) — Several new artificial intelligence tools from China sparked frenzied trading in the nation’s stock market, propelling an index of technology companies to a multi-year high.
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Thursday unveiled its latest open-sourced the QwQ-32B model. The platform marked a big leap over the previous version using just a fraction of the data DeepSeek’s R1 employs. Also this week, Manus AI launched what it called a general AI agent, or a bot that can perform tasks, saying its model is performing better than OpenAI’s DeepResearch on some fronts. The slew of announcements also include Tencent’s new open-source AI video model Hunyuan, and a similar product from short-video platform Kuaishou Technology.
Alibaba’s stock surged 8.4% in Hong Kong, the most in nearly two weeks, helping propel an index of Chinese tech shares 5.4% higher to close at the strongest level since 2021. Kuaishou jumped 16%, the most in more than two years. In mainland China, Focus Technology Co., which has AI agent products, soared by the 10% daily limit.
The gains follow DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough earlier this year, which ignited a bull run for Chinese stocks and sent shockwaves across global markets. The tech sector got another boost this week after China said at the National People’s Congress it would support the extensive application of large-scale AI models and development of new-generation intelligent terminals and manufacturing equipment.
Alibaba in particular has gone on a tear, gaining some $153 billion of market value since a January low. Investors have warmed to the company founded by Jack Ma as it stabilizes a business sideswiped by a years-long government crackdown. Its growing prowess in AI and mounting signs of Beijing’s support helped galvanize its comeback.
“The supportive rhetoric to AI announced at the NPC sets a proper context for Chinese AI innovation to move forward,” said Linda Lam, head of equity advisory North Asia at Union Bancaire Privee. “Looking ahead, we expect a proliferation of open-source AI applications from China and the US, to propel the tech rally globally,”
In the wake of DeepSeek’s emergence, multiple companies have trotted out models and services they claim match the Chinese startup’s or OpenAI, whose ChatGPT is credited with igniting the generative AI boom. The litany of rollouts has captivated both investors and the Chinese public.
